Besigye To Get Medal – Museveni

Jun 12, 2001

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said former presidential candidate Col Dr. Kizza Besigye will be awarded a medal for his participation in the 1981-86 NRA/NRM liberation struggle.

By Grace Matsiko and Jossy Muhangi PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said former presidential candidate Col Dr. Kizza Besigye will be awarded a medal for his participation in the 1981-86 NRA/NRM liberation struggle. Museveni, also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, was responding to a caller during a live talk show on Radio West in Mbarara on Monday night. The caller wanted to know why Besigye was left out when 82 officers were awarded medals at the 12th Heroes Day celebrations. Museveni said he was not among the organisers of the Heroes Day function at Kololo Airstrip and was not in position to explain why Besigye was left out. "I don't know Besigye's army number. I don't think he was a senior officer then. Those who got medals came before him. For Luweero Triangle, he will get it because he participated in the struggle," Museveni said. He said the medals covered different categories. The first medals were for the most senior historical officers, particularly those who were injured during the struggle. "The entire period of the struggle I was in the bush, I never got wounded. Should I pierce myself in order to get a damu (blood) medal?" he asked. He said he and others like Besigye would be considered for participation category medals. Museveni disagreed with a caller who defended Winnie Byanyima saying she had to support Besigye because he is her husband. Museveni said that could not have been a genuine excuse because he knows millions of rural women who defied their husbands to support the Movement. He said some of these women were harassed and their voters cards hidden by their husbands but they remained steadfast and supported the "right" candidate. "Domestic matters cannot be brought into politics," Museveni said. He wondered if a wife must condone the political wrongs of her husband because they are a couple. "She (Byanyima) deliberately supported leaders who wanted to tear the Movement apart. I cannot therefore back her to go to Parliament," he said. Museveni said in 1994 he supported Byanyima when she contested the Constituency Assembly seat with John Ntimba. "But this time she ran away without having courtesy to inform us," he said. Ends

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